Teaching Design, Information, and Interaction: Reflections, Foundations, and Competences

Since 2006, I have been teaching subjects lying in the intersection between design, information, and interactivity for undergraduate and graduate students from design and non-design backgrounds alike. Among the courses constituting my teaching portfolio are introduction to programming for designers, graphic design, interaction design, human-computer interaction, information design, information architecture, web design, and visual design for user experience. Throughout my teaching practice, I have had the opportunity to learn, explore, and reflect upon the meaning and elements of design in the context of interfaces and interaction.

In this session, I want to share my pedagogical approach and learning gained from my teaching practice. I start this presentation by describing the orientation, elements, and learning outcomes of two courses that I taught at a large research university in the Midwest of the United States. The classes are Human-Computer Interaction/Interaction Design and Visual Design for User Experience. Later, I discuss how I currently frame the notion of design, and I use it to determine some relevant aspects that I bring into my teaching practice. These aspects include theoretical foundations and the type of competences that I seek to develop in a design student focusing on information, interaction, and experience. Finally, based on previous results of my research in UX design competencies, I speculate on a set of stages that such a student would undergo along her design career.